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ABC No Rio Gets $1.65 Million for New Digs

June 29, 2009

As onetime habitues, we’re pleased to hear that grotty old ABC No Rio — the Rivington Street space that has been offering crusty entertainments and workshops since 1980 — has gotten a windfall from the city, enabling it to replace its current, structurally unsound home with something more stable. Despite their newfangled donation page, the institution hasn’t been able to gather enough to avoid defenestration, so Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer, city councilman Alan Gerson, and the council itself scraped up $1.65 million in grant money for them. As you can see by their New ABC No Rio blog, they’ve laid a lot of groundwork for an enviromentally-sustainable and bitchin’ new multi-story building, though the Times says the current plan calls for “a one-story building with a basement that will extend farther back than the current structure and provide roughly the same amount of space.” Old-timers fond of grit may suffer a pang, but let us set aside our nostalgie de la boue — the thing will at least still be standing, and still offering stuff like this, so it’s not turning into ABC New Museum. Right? Image via ABC No Rio.